Toronto Hot + Spicy Food Festival

August 14th my friend Joe Simeunovich and I decided instead of looking for BBQ we would do something a little different. I had heard of the Hot + Spicy festival from Jake from Jake Albert’s on his twitter account. And after doing a bit of research I wrote a story for the Toronto Examiner to promote the event which you can read here.

If there is one thing I do not like doing it is driving into Downtown Toronto, but this was a show that I did not want to pass up. I have not been to it before.

The event was a 3 day show held  Friday Saturday and Sunday at Harbourfront Center, Joe and I had the time to go on the 14th which was the Saturday.

We arrived downtown just after Noon and found a Parking garage across the street at a charge of $15.00 so we parked the car and made our way into the show which was free to attend.

A strange site as we arrived was seeing the wave bridge that you see in a couple of the photos below. Toronto had these pedestrian bridges made out of hardwood in these attractive looking shapes at a cost of 5.5 million Dollars which caused a lot of debate over not only the cost but also the fact that it can be dangerous for some people that walk on them.

Right away I noticed that there were a lot of small vendors selling all kinds of clothing and such, which kind of surprised us as we were looking for sauces.

As we worked our way around we spotted a Latin American Churros Stand, Joe knew what they were but I have never seen them before, so we both ordered one filled with hot Caramel. It is a hollow pastry that after it is filled (Chocolate was also a filling  choice) it is coated with some icing sugar.

As I did not get to sample sauces from all of the booths, of which I would estimate at least 20-30 vendors were there that were showcasing their sauces and spices, I can not comment on them all but I will comment on a a select few of them below.

Jake Albert’s Specialty Foods

Proprietor Jay “Jake” Calvert

Website :  http://jakealberts.com/

Location : London, Ontario Canada

e-mail : jake@jakealberts.com

Phone # : 519-438-6672

Twitter : http://twitter.com/Jake_Alberts

I was first made aware of the Hot + Spicy Festival because of my knowing Jay from twitter he had sent a tweet announcing that he would be at the show and I had heard so much about the sauce that his company made I just had to go see it for myself. So I received some information on the show from Jay

This is the 2nd year for Jake Albert’s at the Toronto Hot & Spicy Festival

In 2009 they only had 1 product at the show and that was the popular Fuego Rojo which is a Pomegranate Habanero Glaze.

And while most of the vendors let you sample their sauces using little wooden sticks, pretzels, crackers or corn chips Jake used Vanilla Ice Cream as a base for sampling and it was very popular, in 09  he sold all 24 cases of his Jake Albert’s Fuego Rojo While also handing out over 3000 samples on a small scoop of Ice Cream

It is very sweet with a good kick. As they like to say, “it goes sweet to heat in 5 seconds”

in this 13th annual show Jake Albert brought both the Fuego Rojo and also for the first time Fuego Azul which is a Wild Blueberry Habanero Glaze, along the same properties of Jake Albert’s Fuego Rojo, is amazing as a BBQ Sauce and even better as a Hot Sauce. It too works amazingly well on everything from Ribs, Chicken & Salmon all the way up to Cheesecake and Ice Cream.

Jake says that “It has a very wild taste sensation, it first starts out very sweet, that is what your tongue first registers, then when you swallow, you get the heat in the back of your throat. It isn’t so hot that you can’t handle it either, it disappears within a few seconds, then you are ready for your next bite. It is almost addictive.”

Lucky me!… I have in my possession 1 of each of the Fuego Rojo and the Fuego Azul which I will review at a future time.

Hot Mamas Foods Inc.

Website :  http://hotmamas.ca/

Location : Georgina, Ontario Canada

Phone # : 1-866-361-2468

Hot Mamas Gourmet Pepper Jellies and Sauces were also very popular with the samplers.

A big hit at the show was their Red Pepper Jelly that was served on crackers along with a hunk of Cream cheese which had a wonderful taste that right away forced me to take out my wallet and buy a jar. I hope to do a review on the Red pepper jelly in the coming weeks.

Peppermaster

Website :  http://www.peppermaster.com/

Location : Quebec Canada

Contact : Tina Brooks

e-mail : tbrooks@peppermaster.com

Twitter : http://twitter.com/Pepperfire

I was very impressed by the Peppermaster booth, This was Tina’s 4th year  at the Hot + Spicy Festival in Toronto and they were quite happy to be at the back of the main tent so that they did not get lost in the bottle neck of people trying to enter at the front.

By far Peppermaster had the biggest selection of Hot Sauces that I have ever seen.

The sauces were lined up in order of Mild to Hot to Really Hot! and they even had the hottest pepper on the planet the Ghost Pepper. And before Tina would let you taste a sample of the Ghost Pepper you had to read a short disclaimer. It is that potent!

They even had a flavour called Chocolate Pepper that I would really like to try in the future.

Here are some more random photos that I took at the show.